Category: Health Care

Pictures of the Week with Michael Shaw/BagNewsNotes.com (3/12/10)

March 12, 2010 by Kenneth

Pictures of the Week

Florida’s own Blue Cross to bear: A rigged health care system

March 12, 2010 by Kenneth

Throughout this prolonged national debate about what to do with our dysfunctional health care system, we here in Florida have heard precious little from or about the state’s dominant private health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF), which covers nearly one out of three insured Floridians.

As this titanic battle appears to be heading towards a congressional climax, it’s all too easy to be swayed by both sides into seeing the Democratic reform effort led by President Obama in overly simplistic terms – good or bad, right or wrong, black or white.

But the painful, confusing realities of how America’s private health insurance system is structured, and who stands to benefit the most from different kinds of changes to that structure – those realities may be more easily understood by looking at what’s happening in the “gray zone”, where the Business of health care and the Politics of health care overlap and blur together, where black and white, right and wrong and good and bad can get very hard to tell apart.

Health Care Robocall Targets Parker Griffith

March 9, 2010 by Left in Alabama

Pressure from the left on health care reform. Emphasis mine.

Americans United for Change launched a series of robocalls targeting 10 potentially vulnerable House GOP lawmakers, as well as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

...

The group launched 250,000 robocalls in Arizona targeting McCain, and 400,000 robocalls in the districts of the following lawmakers: Reps. Parker Griffith (Ala.), Mary Bono (Calif.), Ken Calvert (Calif.), Daniel Lungren (Calif.). Mark Kirk (Ill.), Jim Gerlach (Pa.), Pat Tiberi (Ohio), Lee Terry (Neb.), Jean Schmidt (Ohio), and David Reichert (Wash.).

Here's the call script:

I’m calling from Americans United for Change.

Congressman Parker Griffith is happy to let the government pay for his health care, but last November, Congressman Griffith voted against requiring that ordinary Americans be eligible to buy the same health insurance as Members of Congress.

Parker Griffith may enjoy being an important member of Congress, but when it comes to his health care he should be no better than the rest of us.

On Assigning Blame, Or, "So, You Think I'm Retarded?"

March 1, 2010 by Uppity Wisconsin

LANGUAGE WARNING: Today’s story is uncharacteristically blunt, and from this moment forward we will be using lots of inappropriate language in making our points.

Gentle Reader, you have been officially...warned.

With that in mind, if you take offense when confronted with language strong enough to knock a fuckin’ buzzard off a shitwagon, please stop reading now.

It is by now fairly well known that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, had a bit of a blow-up with liberals who were ready to start running ads against “blue dog” Democrats who were working very hard to shut down the health care reform effort.

Now we’re not gonna get in the middle of that argument today; instead, since we’re finally getting a chance to talk, I figured me and Rahm could get a few other things out of the way that have been on everyone’s mind for the past year or so.